San Pedro’s landmark Greek restaurant Papadakis Taverna will close its doors at the end of this month, ending nearly four decades as one of the community’s most successful family-owned businesses.

Serving up authentic Greek food amid the kinetic energy of dancing waiters who entertain and delight diners by smashing plates on the floor, the restaurant has drawn locals and A-list celebrities alike through the years.

“I’m very emotional because I’ve spent 37 years here,” said John Papadakis, who opened the restaurant when he was 23 years old. “We’ve made dining history here. But it’s a business for young people. You have to have a youthful approach.”

Papadakis, who soon turns 60, says he’s ready to move on to other interests.

“It’s a bittersweet thing,” said Papadakis, who has run the restaurant with his brother Tom. “My children have their own pursuits, and I’m glad for that. I raised them to follow their own destiny.”

Papadakis says he’ll spend more time with his family and on his other many business interests.

He also noted that a book he’d written about the 1970 football game between Alabama and USC is being turned into a movie.

While he’s explored closing the restaurant since 2008, Papadakis said it now comes with mixed feelings.

“It’s the passing of an era,” he said. “But I perform a lot and I don’t want to stay too long at the fair.”

San Pedro’s downtown shopping district will surely miss the landmark restaurant where Papadakis, who once played football for USC, personally greeted his customers with bear hugs and pecks on the cheek.

“It’s a unique place,” said Judith Blahnik, manager of operations for the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. “John has a way of making everyone feel like family when they walk through that door.”

Papadakis owns the corner property at 301 W. Sixth St. and Centre Street and says that, while he’s had offers, there are no firm plans yet to lease the space after the restaurant closes.

But with the waterfront plan that he’s been pushing now back on track, the area will offer plenty of opportunity, including possibly another restaurant or jazz club, Papadakis said.

“It’s outfitted beautifully as a restaurant, and it’ll be available for someone who understands that San Pedro will become a seaside destination,” he said.

Papadakis opened the taverna after he’d returned from his honeymoon in Greece and was newly inspired by his family’s rich heritage.

“For me it was very much of an odyssey,” he said. “My grandfather (who came to the United States from Greece) operated two different restaurants at the turn of the century in downtown San Pedro. The taverna incorporated a lot of the immigrant spirit my family reflected.”

Sixth Street, he said, was one of the roughest in town at the time. In the early days, he said, the restaurant was next door to a bar that was a front for a bordello.

But as the buzz about the lively, ethnic restaurant spread, out-of-towners – including a host of top-name celebrities – began to frequent the eatery.

“People would see limousines lined up at Sixth and Centre and they wondered what was going on,” Papadakis said.

Among the restaurant’s visitors were such stars as Elizabeth Taylor, Harrison Ford, Frank Sinatra and John Wayne.

Ron Howard, who like Papadakis has strong USC ties, is a frequent guest. Frank Capra dined at the restaurant not long before he died, Papadakis said.

“Joni Mitchell walked in years ago and so did Neil Young,” he said. “I spent an evening with Frankie Avalon. … Danny DeVito loved the place and came in here all the time when he was in the show `Taxi.’ He felt at home.”

Politicians and sports figures were also regulars.

“The biggest thrill was to see them enjoying themselves like anyone else,” Papadakis said. “I’d think, `These people will think this is really campy,’ but they were thoroughly entertained.”

Today’s new generation of stars are more of a mystery to him, Papadakis acknowledged.

“They still come in but people ask me, `Do you know who that is?’ and I say, `No, I don’t know who that is.”‘

The secret of the taverna’s success, he said, was making every guest, famous or not, feel special.

“You have to humbly want to serve and entertain people and they pick up on your genuine nature,” he said.

The years have seen many changes, especially in dress codes, he said.

“I wouldn’t let anyone in here with shorts or T-shirts, but everything’s so casual now,” he said. “I tell people if they’re fully dressed, they can come in.”

Papadakis’ Web site is encouraging patrons to come by for one last dinner before the restaurant closes, either on Jan. 30 or 31.

“It’s been so popular, it was like holding a tiger by the tail,” he said of the restaurant’s long and successful run. “It was such a high-energy place, it was like trying to keep all the walls in one place. It was wild and fun.”

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

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